Chapters (57)
- Cover
- Dedication
- Foreword
- Prologue
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Thirty-Three
- Thirty-Four
- Thirty-Five
- Thirty-Six
- Thirty-Seven
- Thirty-Eight
- Thirty-Nine
- Forty
- Forty-One
- Forty-Two
- Forty-Three
- Forty-Four
- Forty-Five
- Forty-Six
- Forty-Seven
- Forty-Eight
- Forty-Nine
- Fifty
- Praise for Linwood Barclay
- Also by Linwood Barclay
- About the Publisher
“I need you to get someone to pick me up here at the ferry.”
“Yeah, well, not sure how I would go about that.”
“Why?”
“Okay, I guess, when we were talking before, I forgot to mention something. You know when I said Alice and Rick were on their way to the community center?”
“Yeah?”
“So, their cars just kind of went off without them. Like they had minds of their own. Can you believe it?”
Joe started grinding his teeth together. “There must be a regular car on the fucking island somewhere.”
“Only that one that’s in the shop,” Ronny said. “So I don’t know how—”
Joe ended the call and stole the bike.
Sixteen
Now that Gracie had run off with her phone, as well as her purse and everything in it, Sandra had no immediate way to call Katie and Archie to let them know, if they didn’t already, that something was very, very wrong.
It hadn’t taken her long to surmise that if all the Arrivals at the event had gone nuts, then every Arrival on the island might have lost its mind, too. Which meant her kids could be in jeopardy. She was only slightly comforted by the fact that she had left Katie in charge, and that she and Archie were, in all likelihood, perfectly safe at home.
Still . . .
She had to warn them to stay off the streets until the Arrivals were brought back under control. Katie and Archie were her number one priority.
“Not again,” she said to herself. “I’m not losing anyone else.”
The fire truck down by the road was in flames and its crew had run into the woods for cover, unable to do anything, at least for now, for their coworker pinned to the side of the truck. Sandra could tell, even at a distance, that the man was beyond saving.
Things were no better with the ambulance. One paramedic had run into the woods, and the other was trapped inside the vehicle. She had the window down and was yelling at the Arrivals surrounding the vehicle as if they were a pack of dogs.
“Go away!” she shouted. “Scoot!”
Scoot.
There was less mayhem directly out front of the community center. All the Arrivals, with the exception of the now motionless one that had cut off Lisa Carver’s leg, were down by the main road, holding the emergency vehicles back.
The flames from the fire engine were growing higher, licking an overhead wire that ran across the road. Within seconds, the wire’s insulation was ablaze, the flickers of flame running the length of it as quickly as a squirrel.